THE UNEXPLORED PHILIPPINES FROM
THE AIR
Map-making Over Jungle Lands Never Before Seen
By White Men
BY LIEUT. GEORGE W. GODDARD, U. S. A.
With Illustrations from Photographs by the Author
T HE Philippine Islands are not all so
thoroughly civilized and so thickly
populated as Americans generally
believe.
Approximately 25,000 square
miles of insular territory, most of it moun
tain jungle land, is listed on Government
survey maps as "unexplored."
We of the Sixth Photographic Section,
U. S. Army, at Nichols Field, near Ma
nila, were glad of the opportunity for a
flying expedition over a strip of this unex
plored land in the northeast corner of the
island of Luzon, largest of the Philip
pines, on the west coast of which Manila
is located. We set out one sunny morn
ing with three Army airplanes for exten
sive work in aerial photography and pho
tographic mosaic map-making.
Always there is a thrill of interest in
flying over territory one has never seen
before. We could not tell what might be
revealed. But it was only too easy to see
that a forced landing would have entailed
risks other than the usual hazards of such
experiences.
PHILIPPINE MAHOGANY MARKETED BY
THE JAPANESE
Lumbering in this district is largely in
the hands of Japanese. We saw a freighter
flying the Japanese flag lying off the coast
and loading Philippine mahogany taken
from the more easily accessible forests
along a river and floated down to the sea.
The logs taken out are five and six feet
in diameter, and are floated out to the
ships on bamboo rafts. Some of the finest
cabinet woods in the world come out of
these dense jungles.
The purpose of our work was threefold.
We were to gather information, mostly
photographic, that would enable the Bu
reau of Forestry of the Philippine Gov
ernment to make a timber survey. The
Bureau of Lands also was anxious to de
termine if any of this territory might be
parceled out to settlers. It adjoins the
fertile valley of the Cagayan River.
Our most important objective was to
furnish the Coast and Geodetic Survey
with a set of photographs to be used as
plane-table sheets.
We succeeded in photographing alto
gether about 5,000 square miles; also we
found and photographed a 500-foot water
fall-never before seen by whites so far
as we know-which we named for the
then Governor General of the Philippines,
Henry L. Stimson (see opposite page).
Previous photographic work of a simi
lar kind on the island of Mindoro, and on
the Bataan Peninsula, west of Manila Bay.
had given us some idea of what to expect.
Our greatest risk was in a possible forced
landing.
In actual mapping work, Lieut. H. R.
Wells and I were to pilot two De Havil
land photographic planes, each carrying a
noncommissioned officer to operate the
cameras. We planned that we would al
ways fly together, so that in case of a
forced landing on the treetops, the other
plane could go back to the base and send
out the Martin bomber with mattresses,
mosquito netting, cans of water, emer
gency rations prepared in tins, and rifles
and ammunition enough to last us until
rescuers could bolo a passage through the
jungle to us.
We would have to drop with parachutes,
of course, if anything happened, and we
planned to spread these 'chutes out on the
treetops as markers and use our smoke
flares so the bomber could find us.
SUPPLIES TIED TO WINGS OF PLANES
The two De Havillands and the two
motored bomber started out from Nichols
Field so heavily loaded with mail, equip
ment, and supplies that we were some
what doubtful whether they would leave
the ground. On the De H's we even had